About this opportunity
Make your mark for patients
To strengthen our External Supply Quality department, we are looking for a talented profile to fill the position of: Vendor Quality Lead & QP – Braine l’Alleud, Belgium.
About the role
As a member of the External Supply Quality team, the Vendor Quality Lead (VQL) will provide leadership and QA expertise in driving strategic and operational Quality Assurance activities associated with Global Vendors (Contract Manufacturing Organizations) engaged in GMP manufacturing activities for UCB Products.
You will work with
The Vendor Quality Lead (VQL) works closely with QA management within UCB and interfaces with other internal functions like Product CMC Quality Leads, Vendor Quality Leads for other vendor sites, and in collaboration with UCB Technical Operations and other UCB teams (Vendor Team, Extended Vendor Team).
What you will do
Be the central QA point of contact for the organization for investigations / deviations / out-of-specifications / audit observations associated with the assigned vendors.
Perform the QA review of deviation notifications and investigations, retrieve and collect supportive information from involved stakeholders (UCB Vendor Team, CMC Quality Leads, ILA, ALO, Business) to allow assessment;
Manage the key performance indicators (metrics) for key operational QA activities and services associated with the vendors in the defined described tracking tools and track the vendor’s performance;
Ensure all Quality agreements are in place and take ownership of agreements for the vendors. Maintain Quality Agreement with the vendors up to date and perform periodic reviews and update of the agreement in close collaboration with the vendors;
Ensure the Product Quality Reviews (PQR) are completed by the vendors in a timely manner and as needed and are reviewed within the established lead times. Ensure that this review is documented and made available in the UCB EDMS;
Participate as QA representative to the recurrent vendor meetings, present issues and resolutions, and drive vendor quality performance through these meetings;
Quality Complaints: be the contact person for the follow-up with vendors for the manufacturing investigation part. When applicable, ensure that initial receipt, logging of quality complaints into the UCB Complaint System and provision of responses to the complainant are professionally coordinated and managed;
Provide in-depth expert QA advice, support and management for technical operational QA and general QA strategic matters associated with the vendors;
Work closely with Corporate QA teams, Technical Operation Teams, Business stakeholders and Affiliates in an effective and efficient way;
Ensure review of relevant RA dossier section related to the assigned vendors;
Support on customer audits and Health Authority inspections at the vendors, as needed
Drive resolution for complex quality issues related to the vendors in scope.
Support the QP in relation to all batch release activity, primarily performing QA review of batch documents.
Issue batch certificates for product release and distribution
Perform in SAP the transactional product release and maintenance of batch release register
Deputize for Qualified Person To perform the Qualified Person (QP) function regarding Batch Release as defined by Directive 2001/83/EC and related legislation
Interested? For this position you’ll need the following education, experience and skills
Master’s degree or an education in a relevant scientific discipline
A minimum of eight years of experience in Quality Assurance within the pharmaceutical sector is required
Must hold a valid Qualified Person (QP) Certification Number
Fluent English communication (oral and written); any additional languages are a plus
Good knowledge of cGMP and relevant regulatory requirements (e.g US, European, Japanese)
QA/compliance experience in pharmaceutical regulated environment
Good teamwork and project management skills. Must have strong, organization and analytical skills.
Fact based decision maker: understand complex issues and have the ability to contribute to informed decision making when working on “grey” issues
Demonstrates initiative and an ability to help team and others identify and facilitate resolution of problems
Able to make/influence quality/compliance decisions in a CMC development environment.
Must be able to act in most circumstances without direct supervision and handle complex/difficult situation
Demonstrated proficiency in risk analysis methodologies
Internal applicants should be in their current job for at least 12 months, must meet performance standards and are not on formal corrective/disciplinary process (PIP), warning, final warning, or compliance warning letters within the last 12 months. Please inform your Manager or your Talent Partner before applying to any internal job opportunities.
At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description, this role is hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office, irrespective of your current contractual agreement. Should your current working arrangements differ, please contact your Talent Partner to discuss, before submitting your application.
UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.
Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on EMEA-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com . Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.
Requisition ID: 93432
Recruiter: Hiba Loutfi
Hiring Manager: Sylvie Polet
Talent Partner: Sandrine Eelbo
Job Level: MM II
Please consult HRAnswers for more information on job levels.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Quality role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 644 comparable Quality roles across 85 biopharma companies.
Salary context
110 of 644 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 644 comparable roles
+ 39 more countries
Seniority mix
309 of 644 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
0 of 644 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.